42's Boseman covered all the bases for Jackie Robinson role

Lucas Black, left, with Chadwick Boseman in 42.

Photograph by: Warner Bros. Pictures
, Postmedia News

LOS ANGELES — Chadwick Boseman understood that playing Jackie Robinson in the baseball movie 42 wasn’t just another career move.

Opening on April 12, the biopic chronicles the pivotal time when the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Robinson broke the colour barrier in Major League Baseball.

Not only did the player — who wore the number 42 — lead the way for African-American athletes in all sports, his historic 1947 signing signalled the unofficial beginning of the civil rights movement in the U. S.

“That’s one of the things that was initially intimidating,” said 31-year-old Boseman promoting the movie at L. A.’s downtown sports museum featuring a Jackie Robinson exhibit.

“Some audiences are going to learn about this time period through my performance, and it’s ultra-important that it be passed on accurately.”

Indeed, it was deemed historic enough back in 1950 that Robinson played himself in a movie profiling his rise from the Negro leagues to segregated Major League Baseball.

The Brian Helgeland-directed 42 focuses on the critical years of 1946 and 1947 when Robinson played for the International League’s Montreal Royals and was called up the next year to the Dodgers by the club’s executive, Branch Rickey, who is portrayed by Harrison Ford in the film.

It’s an intense sports drama mixing lots of baseball moments with behind-the-scenes sequences, and even some comic relief.

First, though, Helgeland had to get permission from Robinson’s widow who holds the rights to the story after Robinson died of a heart attack in October of 1972.

“She wanted a greater breadth to the (film), also seeing him before baseball and after baseball,” said the writer-director. “But I talked her into focusing on 1946 and ’47.”

Robinson’s wife also met with Boseman after he won the part, which proved invaluable to the actor who now calls Brooklyn his home.

A graduate of Howard University and British American Drama Academy at Oxford, Boseman first wrote and directed plays including Deep Azure.

In 2008, he had a cameo portraying college football running back Floyd Little in The Express. And he had roles in such diverse shows as Fringe, Justified, Law & Order and Persons Unknown. His 42 portrayal counts as a huge opportunity but a risky one.

“It’s a daunting task that I didn’t know how to start until I talked to her,” said Boseman of meeting with Rachel Robinson. “She’s carried on his legacy so his spirit is still present within her. I realized he had a teammate in her.”

Through their conversations, the actor discovered that Robinson was disciplined, intelligent, opinionated and keenly aware of what he represented. “And his wife said he was adamant about not drinking.”

By her accounts, Robinson prided himself on his appearance, always wearing tailored suits and the latest in fashion.

“He liked to look good,” said Boseman. “He was also a gentleman and he had a lot of poise, but you could see how uncomfortable he was at first with all the publicity, the cameras and the flash photos.

“But at the same time he seemed to rise to the occasion of talking to the press when he had to.”

Through research, Boseman found out that before the Dodgers, Robinson was a celebrated athlete in the Negro leagues and at UCLA where he excelled at football, basketball, and baseball and he was an Olympic level track athlete.

That meant the physical challenge of emulating Robinson would be just as difficult as the emoting. So Boseman, who played mostly basketball growing up, dedicated himself to baseball.

“I had baseball camp five days a week from the middle of January to May, and it was no fooling around,” said the actor.

He worked out daily with pro coaches and players before filming started at vintage baseball fields in Macon, Ga., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala.

To ensure that Boseman was on the right track, he would swing a bat, play second base and first base (as Robinson had), run the bases and slide just like he thought Robinson did.

“We had split screens of my footage with Jackie Robinson’s, so I could look at it in slow motion to figure out what was working and what wasn’t,” Boseman said.

Not surprisingly, his scenes as Robinson opposite Ford as Rickey inspired him, as well. And that’s not just because Ford is a revered actor.

“I think it was important to show that these two men made an agreement to do this together on equal terms,” said Boseman. “It was not like a father-son relationship but they did see eye to eye, so one was helping the other accomplish their goals.”

Indeed, baseball still celebrates the event. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired number 42 for all teams. And since 2004, every April 15 (the day Robinson played his first game) all players wear 42.

“It’s good that we can check in and see where we are now and where we came from in slaying the dragon called racism,” Boseman said.

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